FROM THE PREFACE: Squadron command is often described as the best job in the Air Force. It is also one of the most demanding. Commanders are entrusted with incredible power-in terms of legal authority and personal influence-and it is critical you honor that trust by commanding effectively with balance, purpose, and dedication. As the commander, it is your responsibility to set the tone, establish priorities, and take the lead. As you meet your daily challenges, remember that ultimately command is not about you or how skilled you are in your Air Force specialty. Command is about accomplishing the mission and taking care of your Airmen. this guide will help you on your way. there is no "all-encompassing" checklist or "how-to guide" for command-no manual could hope to be so comprehensive. How you lead your squadron depends on your experience, ideas, goals, values, and willingness to learn. Your past performance has demonstrated that you are up to the task-if not, you would not have been selected for command. Even so, you will not know everything before you start, and the job will always be a learning endeavor. You can, however, take advice and learn from other commanders' experiences to make you a better, more effective leader. that is the intent of this publication-to advance the practice of command. this book, in conjunction with the Commanders Connection, the professional forum for squadron commanders, does just that. the following articles and tips are not regulations you must follow, nor should they be your sole source of information. they are only guides based on the experiences and lessons learned from a diverse group of Air Force leaders. Used properly and supplemented with other sources, these guides help prepare you to effectively meet the needs of the mission, while taking care of your people. We hope you find the information here useful. thoughtfully applied, it will make you a more effective commander. Obviously there are many programs, experiences, and issues we could not capture in one document. to remedy this problem, we encourage you to join the Commanders Connection (https: //acsc.sqcc .maxwell.af.mil), where you will find an up-to-date electronic version of this book and a forum to ask questions, share your knowledge, and receive advice from current and former squadron-level leaders. We greatly appreciate the support of the following Air University organizations located at Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), Ira C. Eaker College for Professional Development, Commanders' Professional Development School, and Air University Press for their assistance in making this revised publication a reality. Without their support this project would not have been possible. good luck in your command!

The privilege of commanding an Air Force squadron, despite its heavy responsibilities and unrelenting challenges, represents for many Air Force officers the high point of their careers. It is service as a squadron commander that accords true command authority for the first time. The authority, used consistently and wisely, provides a foundation for command. As with the officer's commission itself, command authority is granted to those who have earned it, both by performance and a revealed capacity for the demands of total responsibility. But once granted, it much be revalidated every day. So as one assumes squadron command, bringing years of experience and proven record to join with this new authority, one might still need a little practical help to success with the tasks of command. This book offers such help. “Commanding an Air Force Squadron” brings unique and welcome material to a subject other books have addressed. It is rich in practical, useful, down-to-earth advice from officers who have recently experienced squadron command. The author does not quote regulations, parrot doctrine, or paraphrase the abstractions that lace the pages of so many books about leadership. Nor does he puff throughout the manuscript about how he did it. Rather, he presents a digest of practical wisdom based on real-world experience drawn from the reflection of many former commanders from any different types of units. He addresses all Air Force squadron commanders, rated and nonrated, in all sorts of missions worldwide. Please also see a follow up to this book entitled “Commanding an Air Force Squadron in the Twenty-First Century (2003)” by Jeffry F. Smith, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF.

The concept of command in a military setting is nothing new. It proliferates throughout most good history books. Many different individuals have exercised this phenomenon called commander: Alexander the Great as he conquered the known world; Attila the Hun in the fifth century A.D.; Generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant against each other during our Civil War; and General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower in Europe during the Second World War. These leaders are certainly a varied grouping: they were literally and figuratively worlds apart; they were surely loved by thousands of people and probably despised by an equal number, and with the exception of Lee and Grant, lived in different eras. But they shared this one common thread – military command. In the United States Air Force, an officer's first opportunity to command in the true sense of the word occurs at the squadron level. Most Air Force officers who have been commanders will tell you that their command tours were the best years of their careers, and a majority of those who commanded at multiple levels will tell you that squadron command was the absolute pinnacle. This book is all about squadron command. Colonel-select Jeff Smith has done a tremendous job in gathering the thoughts and ideas of many commanders, including himself, and offering the reader the opportunity learn from literally a hundred former and current commanders. After conducting extensive research, Colonel Smith presents “the best of the best” on a wide range of topics that directly apply to squadron commanders. “Commanding an Air Force Squadron in the Twenty-First Century” does not pretend to present the patented answer to any problem, issue or situation. Colonel Smith does not direct you to ready or study instruction and regulations as if you need textbook answer to command a squadron – you don't. Finally, he does not discuss units other than squadrons and does not discuss squadron command as if it were accomplished I the first 50 years of our Air Force's history. What Colonel Smith does do is present a plethora of account of how recent and current squadron commander have approached today's situations, problems, and issues. He paints a picture of commanding a squadron through the eyes of a hundred individuals and offers it to the reader in a well-written, easy-to-read format that might be best described as “Dutch uncle advice.” Any commander or soon-to-be commander can pick up this book, read it, and come away with new ideas or methods that he or she will be able to apply to his or her own situations. Please also see a previous book entitled “Commanding an Air Force Squadron (1993)” by Timothy T. Timmons, Col, USAF.